In a high-level martial arts game, a wife is given to you at the start.

Chapter 1016 Begging for mercy is useless

Lin Qiye did not answer.

He took a single step forward, his right hand outstretched, and a swirling vortex of dark golden light condensed in his palm. The vortex was small, only about a foot in diameter, but the suction it contained caused the air in the entire cave to collapse towards his palm. The crystalline powder scattered on the dry grass was sucked up and swirled into the vortex, where it was silently annihilated.

The man's pupils suddenly contracted.

He clearly hadn't anticipated Lin Qiye's decisive and ruthless reaction—normally, when encountering someone claiming to be a "guardian" and who willingly hands over a crucial item, one would at least ask questions before taking action. Those conspiracies, traps, and counterattacks all require a step of "asking questions" to be successful. But Lin Qiye skipped all the steps and went straight to the end.

"Wait! You don't know who I am—do you know what's hidden inside this core? It's a candle—"

Lin Qiye's palm was already on the top of his head.

A dark golden vortex enveloped the man's entire head, swallowing his voice, his breath, and every remaining wisp of fluorescent blue primal energy within him. The man's body convulsed violently, his limbs struggling wildly as if electrocuted. The crystalline scales on his right arm shattered layer by layer, turning into fine blue specks that were sucked into the vortex. The callus at the severed point of his left arm also crumbled, revealing the already necrotic muscle and bone beneath, which were also completely devoured by the vortex.

"I'll talk—I'll talk—I know the secrets of all the heavens and the myriad worlds—I know the identities of those traitors—I know that Candle has a backup plan—"

Lin Qiye's palm strike did not weaken in the slightest.

The dark golden vortex spun even faster. The person's voice grew thinner and weaker under the pull of the vortex, like a string stretched to its limit, finally snapping under the strain.

His body stopped convulsing.

In those fluorescent blue eyes, the last glimmer of light vanished like an extinguished candle. His head gradually withered under Lin Qiye's palm—not physically withered, but utterly annihilated at the soul level. The body that had once retained a trace of life became a true shell in a few breaths, devoid of consciousness and soul. Even the crystalline tissues within the body rapidly disintegrated after losing their soul's support, turning into a handful of grayish-white powder that fluttered down from between Lin Qiye's fingers.

Lin Qiye withdrew his hand.

His palms were spotless, without a drop of blood or a speck of dust. The dark golden vortex vanished silently after fulfilling its mission, as if it had never existed.

He stared at the pile of grayish-white powder on the ground—the last trace left in this world by the being who called himself the "Watchman"—and remained silent for a moment before slowly closing his eyes.

He is perceiving.

The instant he used the light vortex to annihilate that being, his source energy had already permeated every corner of the other's soul. It was an extremely precise permeation, like injecting a drop of ink into a pool of clear water; the ink would spontaneously diffuse to every part of the water, completely reflecting its structure and composition. When that person's soul was completely annihilated, all the memories, all the secrets, and all the information hidden in the deepest recesses of his soul were brought back intact by that drop of "ink" and merged into Lin Qiye's sea of ​​consciousness.

This was a complete soul reading.

The amount of information is enormous.

Lin Qiye stood with his eyes closed beside the pile of grayish-white powder for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, before he had finished sorting through the information that had flooded into his mind. When he opened his eyes again, the faint golden light deep in his pupils was a few degrees stronger than before, carrying an extremely complex emotion—not anger, not shock, but a state of deep contemplation, immersed in a vast amount of information.

He finally learned the truth.

The man who called himself the "Guardian" was actually named Yin He. He was a member of the third generation of Supreme Beings created by Zhu himself, and one of the "Seven Attendants" under Zhu's command. The Seven Attendants were seven of the most loyal and powerful beings selected by Zhu from the Supreme Beings, responsible for guarding Zhu's throne, executing Zhu's will, and managing the order of all the heavens and myriad realms. Yin He ranked sixth among the Seven Attendants, with the title "Bone Attendant." He controlled the laws related to bones, shells, and fossils—which is why he was able to survive in this Bone Tower for so long, deeply fusing his body with the structure of the Bone Tower.

Of the seven attendants, three participated in the rebellion against Zhu.

The fourth-ranked "Flame Servant," the fifth-ranked "Wind Servant," and the seventh-ranked "Soul Servant" all betrayed the Candle at its weakest moment, personally participating in the construction of the array of 36,000 light chains. Furthermore, as the Candle was dragged into the void rift, they used their respective powers to accelerate the rift's closure, ensuring the Candle had no chance to escape.

Yin He was one of the four among the Seven Attendants who did not betray them.

In the moments before Zhu was dragged into the void rift, he used his last strength to eject a drop of his bloodline, simultaneously issuing a final command to Yin He—to guard the spot where this drop of bloodline fell, awaiting the arrival of the successor, and then hand over a memory core hidden within his body to the successor. That memory core sealed within it were the deepest secrets of the myriad realms that Zhu had collected over countless years—including the true identities of those traitors, their weaknesses, and the several escape routes Zhu had prepared for himself during his prime.

But Yin He changed while he was waiting.

After that drop of bloodline fell into the Canggu Mountains, its powerful energy radiation turned the area into a forbidden zone. Yin He guarded this place as Zhu had ordered, year after year, day after day, watching the mountains gradually deform under the energy radiation, watching the bone towers grow under the influence of the bloodline, watching the ancient beasts that had been attracted to slumber underground, and watching wave after wave of explorers enter this area and die.

He had waited too long.

So long that his loyalty to the Candle was gradually eroded in the long, almost eternal solitude. First came doubt—would the Candle really return? Could that drop of blood truly give birth to an inheritor? Had those traitors already detected the existence of this place? Then came fear—if the traitors discovered this place, how would they treat him, the Candle's loyal subject? Finally, came greed—the secrets sealed within that memory core, that deepest knowledge about the myriad realms, if he could possess it all, could he replace the Candle, or even surpass it?

At a point in time he can no longer recall exactly, he made a decision.

He wanted to kill the heir.

Then they claim the core of the memory as their own.

But he cannot stray too far from the Bone Tower. His life is deeply intertwined with it; if he leaves the tower beyond a certain range, he will rapidly decay and die, like a fish out of water. So he can only wait, wait for the successor to walk into the Bone Tower, into the trap he has meticulously laid.

He waited for Lin Qiye.